Path to tandem pitchers in majors would be difficult

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The Astros are the first organization to use two starting pitchers per game at every level of the minor leagues. Instead of employing a typical five-man, five-day rotation, the Astros have eight pitchers working in pairs every four days.

What might not be noticed is that the Astros are using a derivative structure in the big leagues, too, even in keeping with a regular five-man rotation.

“We have a version of a piggy-back in a sense that every game that a starter goes out, Bo and I try to make sure that we have a back-up,” pitching coach Brent Strom said. “The long guy becomes basically that piggy guy.”

McHugh’s start on Tuesday night in Seattle was eye-opening well beyond the dozen buzzworthy strikeouts he recorded in his first major league win.

McHugh was permitted to go 89 pitches. Because he was part of the tandem system in the minors, he hadn’t thrown more than 73 pitches in an outing.

How can a pitcher who was just called up, as McHugh was, go deep into a game if he’s moving from a tandem system to a regular rotation?

Take it a step farther. Say the Astros or any team were to use a full-fledged tandem rotation in the majors.

When a pitcher is dominating, like McHugh was on Tuesday, wouldn’t be it be very difficult to remove the pitcher?

“He’ll be back in four days instead of five,” Luhnow said of the general counter-argument. “It’s a totally different philosophy. It’s more of a developmental thing than a maximize-your-wins at the big league level thing.”

Health is a driving force behind using the tandem system, and it could be a motivating factor for a team to adopt such a system. Injuries to pitchers have become alarmingly common.

“I would not be surprised if clubs started to think about some unique solutions to help prevent injuries, and we’re certainly one of them,” Luhnow said.

At the minor league level, having eight pitchers make starts instead of five is also advantageous because it may allow more pitchers to be evaluated. A lesser-known pitcher like Jake Buchanan has an equal chance to impress just as a pitcher who, as Strom put it, has “the thunder,” like Mike Foltynewicz.

But could it ever work in the majors? The Astros aren’t the only ones to think about it. The developmental arguments don’t matter as much in the bigs.

“I can absolutely see it happening,” A’s assistant GM Farhan Zaidi said. “We actually talked about doing it a few years ago when we had pitching depth that wasn’t that unlike what the Astros have now.”

Strom said there’s been a thought of using pitchers for three innings each, because statistics show that pitchers increasingly struggle on successive times through the batting order. He said a horse like Justin Verlander or a young CC Sabathia would be a different story.

“The reason I think it could still happen is overwhelming evidence that limiting the exposure of pitchers to a third time through the lineup is really advantageous,” Zaidi said. “Once you’re talking about just having a guy who can get through lineup one to two times, there’s a much broader pool of pitchers that can probably do that. So there’s a lot of reasons why it could still see it happening.”

Zaidi acknowledged the problem of removing a pitcher who’s rolling.

“When we have this discussion, that’s what people always say,” he said. “My argument is, it’s not different from having a reliever throwing a 1-2-3 inning and then going to the next guy. You have to think about the job of that guy as having been fundamentally changed from getting through as long as possible, to getting through four innings. Or getting thorough the batting order 1 1/2 times.”

Zaidi also believes there may be “less stress on guys throwing 60 pitches every fourth day than there is throwing 100 (every five).” A four-day rotation could be more efficient — a pitcher throws in a game, rests, throws a side session, rests, and throws in-game again.

“Just from a standpoint of your off-days and keeping guys throwing every other day, it makes a lot of sense,” Zaidi said. “Pitching coaches, that’s what they’ll say: the guy pitching every fourth day, if the pitch count is controlled, is in some ways advantageous. Because throwing every fifth day, there’s a wasted day in there on either side of when you throw.”

A full switch would never happen without a fight, though. Everyone knows that: Luhnow, Zaidi. Astros minor leaguers don’t rave about the system now. If it’s ever going to happen in the majors on a longterm basis, it’ll take a top-down commitment and a front office with great resolve to weather complaints. Ultimately, pitchers are being asked to change mindset and approach, both physically and mentally.

“You almost have to be starting from scratch to implement something like that,” Zaidi said. “It would be very hard for a team with an established pitching staff to sort of change roles and get guys to buy in.”

“There’s pushback in the minor leagues when you do this,” Luhnow said. “Pitchers pushback, coaches pushback, and until someone tries it and has experience with it, it’s difficult to accept. But having said that, you do it at Triple-A — what’s the difference doing it at the big leagues? It’s the same roster limitations, you’ve got 25 guys. You carry 13 pitchers.”

When McHugh was with the Rockies last year, he had teammates who were a year removed from a sort of tandem system the 2012 Rockies uses in the majors. McHugh feels that limiting a pitcher to 60 pitches in exchange for one fewer day of rest wouldn’t be significantly beneficial.

“A few guys got hurt and there were guys that went down, Alex White being one of them,” McHugh said of Colorado’s experiment. “A couple of other guys I talked to in the organization didn’t like it. I think it’s more from a starter’s perspective — getting in the mindset of getting through a lineup three times. Developing a game plan and sticking to it, feeling like less of a reliever, more of a starter, because even though you’re starting a game when you’re on a system like that, it feels like you’re a reliever. You’re coming in, get your pitches in, get some guys out, and cash it in.

“To go on one less day (of rest), it’s hard. Because here’s the reality of it: You get 75 pitches or five innings, so you have your 75 pitches, so you get to that. You got at least 35 warm-up pitches before the game. So that’s 110. And then you throw some in-between warm up pitches, probably another 30 — 140 pitches as opposed to maybe 170 pitches. It’s a wash. It’s a full day’s work and then you’re coming back, day off, bullpen, day off, pitch again. … I don’t think it’s very sustainable, truthfully.”

Even if a team takes a leap of faith and more pitchers might stay healthy in the long run, the routine change could create short-term injuries. That leads to a perception problem.

“You have to have four very solid, not-going-to-get-hurt, able-to-rebound-type pitchers,” Strom said. “If you have one weak link, you’re screwed. You’re screwed.”

Warned Zaidi: “Anything that’s bad that happens, the first guy that goes down for Tommy John …”